The director, composer and playwright had been diagnosed with cancer. Director, composer and playwright Claire van Kampen, the wife of actor Sir Mark Rylance, has died aged 71 after being diagnosed with cancer. Van Kampen died Saturday (January 18), which also marked her husband’s 65th birthday, in the German town of Kassel surrounded by her family, a statement shared on behalf of Rylance and her daughter Juliet said.
![[Mark Rylance and Claire van Kampen at Wimbledon in 2022]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/18/16/21bc815a171837ae6cb934c8133d17a5Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3MzAyMjA3-2.67734999.jpg)
Originally trained as a concert pianist, van Kampen worked in various roles at Shakespeare’s Globe for around 20 years. Her family described her as “one of the funniest and [most] inspiring women we have ever known.”. They added: “We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love.
“Ring the bell, sound the trumpets reverie, something is done, something is beginning. One of the great wise ones has passed.”. Her theater credits include composing the music for the 1989 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet starring Rylance, whom she married that same year.
Later in her career, she created original scores for Broadway productions of 2000’s True West, 2008’s Boeing-Boeing and 2010 comedy La Bete, as well as adaptations of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Richard III. Van Kampen also wrote the play Farinelli And The King, which saw Sir Mark star as King Philippe V of Spain and was nominated for several Olivier Awards including best new play, and a number of Tony Awards.
